SCOTTS VALLEY -- Laurel Curve, an accident-prone stretch of Highway 17, may become safer for wildlife in the next few years thanks to the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.

The conservation group has purchased a 10-acre plot just east of the curve, the first step toward building a wildlife crossing under the highway.

Plans for the tunnel, which would connect two undeveloped areas thick with wildlife, are preliminary, said Stephen Slade, the trust's deputy director. But the trust is working with Caltrans to determine the cost and timeline, and Slade said so far costs seem manageable.

In March 2012, following a fatal accident, Caltrans built a 300-foot concrete barrier at the S-shaped Laurel Curve to prevent left turns at Laurel Road. No fatalities have occurred there since, but the curve still causes a high number of accidents, said Caltrans spokesman Colin Jones.

Caltrans improvements resulted in the removal of a culvert, which acted as an underground passage for wildlife. The barrier also makes a highway crossing more dangerous for pumas, who can clear the jump but can't see the other side, Slade said.

"They're leaping into the unknown," Slade said.

Traffic accidents are a leading cause of puma mortality in the Santa Cruz Mountains, second to being shot by livestock owners.

One or two mountain lions die on Highway 17 each year, said Chris Wilmers, the project's lead investigator, with the most recent on Oct. 31 when Santa Cruz's famous downtown mountain lion was struck near Vine Hill Road.

The trust identified Laurel Curve as an optimal wildlife crossing location after consulting the Santa Cruz Puma Project. Since 2008, the UC Santa Cruz research group has tracked 46 local pumas also known as cougars or mountain lions, using high-tech collars.

The Laurel Curve is a popular thoroughfare for pumas because it connects the Loch Lomond watershed to the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, both important parts of its habitat, said Chris Wilmers, the project's lead investigator, Highways not only kill pumas but also create boundaries that limit their opportunities for breeding, creating isolated populations ridden with incest, said Veronica Yovovich, a graduate student in Wilmer's lab.

About 60 pumas live in the Santa Cruz Mountains, whose habitat is bordered by the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Yovovich said. Only two areas connect their habitat to the rest of the state -- San Jose's Coyote Creek and Watsonville's Pajaro River -- both of which are east of Highway 17, she said.

"Making sure there's connectivity between the west side and east side of Highway 17 and from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the rest of California will be important for maintaining a healthy mountain lion population," Yovovich said. "It's all about having a nice robust gene pool."

Pumas wouldn't be the only animals to benefit from the tunnel.

Brad Sadek, a California Highway Patrol spokesman, said he sees vehicle collisions with deer across the county, but many incidents go unreported.

"If a tunnel somehow leads them to go under the freeway, it's probably safer for both animals and motorists," Sadek said.

The Land Trust bought the plot with a $614,000 loan from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and contributions from members. The trust plans to resell the land after placing an easement that would protect the crossing, said Dan Medeiros, Land Trust project director.

"It's still pretty preliminary," Medeiros said. "It could take a couple years. We're really just working on preserving the opportunity to create this."